BREAKING: ISIS Fires Rockets at Kabul Airport

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ISIS fires rockets at the Kabul airport. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

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1-800-684-3110 or 1-800-684-3110. So obviously it was a packed week last week. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be joining us today on the broadcast to talk about this wind down that is occurring. But a lot of activity of course because of these groups who are looking to inflict as much pain as they can on the United States of America. While we still have troops there and they know where the troops are. So the latest development is the rocket attack. So you've had five rockets that were fired at the airport.

Only one landed with inside the airport. No one was injured there or no one was killed there. And it didn't stop the operations from continuing that are still going on which is at more, seems like a limited pace. And there was a strike back.

We used a system that's a much smaller system to take out mortars and rocket fire. But that is occurring. So now we're in this period where, I mean it's around 3 o'clock tomorrow eastern time where we're supposed to be out 100%. These terrorists know that. So whatever they've got I would assume they're going to be utilizing in the next 24 hours to try and injure and kill as many Americans as they can. Yeah and there was also a report that came out yesterday, a text message I guess, that came out from the United States. Do we have that up on the screen that we can show it to?

We do not? Okay. Basically it said, it read like a flight cancellation. So this was to Afghan nationals that have worked with the United States. Sorry to inform you but we're not going to be able to evacuate any additional international participants. In other words, people that worked with the United States, translators, assistants, advisors that were already cleared to go to the United States or come to the United States. They were told they will not be able to make those trips.

What's interesting about this and I think I can read it to you exactly. Well first before I do that Wes, the wind down stage is going on right now militarily so what does that look like? Yeah it's what they call retrograde operations. They have already started moving several hundred troops out of the airport. That's the only piece of real estate we have in Afghanistan anymore and so they are winding down.

Most of the gates are closed most of the time. We still have soldiers on the perimeter. Of course beyond them is the Afghan perimeter and so they are in the process of packing. I mean tomorrow at 3.30 Eastern time in the United States that's the deadline to be out of Afghanistan. Tomorrow 3.30 Eastern here and so in a little over 24 hours they have a lot to do of not only getting our troops on planes to get out. Of course there's the threats of rocket fire now which can also bring down a plane but destroying what equipment they can't take with them I hope.

And then get our troops on a plane and leave. It's a lot of work to be done in 36 to 48 hours. It's not going to be orderly. It's not going to be a neat thing. Unfortunately.

Here's interesting. This is exactly what it said. We regret to inform you that the international military evacuations from Kabul airport have ended. Yeah it's done. I mean at this point it's the US troops wrapping up. There are people that were already inside so there will still be people that are technically evacuated who are already gone through the process or waiting for an airplane. But we have to understand here is that we are in the pack up phase.

We've been in the pack up phase I'm sure the last few days. I think the focus of course generated rightly so on the Americans who were killed but that took a little bit of the focus in on what was actually going on post that attack what the US is doing. There's no indication that this is going to go an extra minute.

No I think Joe Biden although there have been protests to the contrary from governments as well as inside the White House I think it's a fait accompli. He's leaving. He's leaving as scheduled and if Americans are left behind he'll figure they said they've got other methods covert operations which we'll talk about when we come back.

There's an interesting piece in the Washington Post we'll also talk about which talks about the major mistakes that were made in this. We'll do that. Should we stay live during the break here Will? Yeah let's do that because I've got a couple questions for Thanh I'd like to run.

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Welcome back to Second. We are taking action, too. We have filed just now our FOIA in Washington, D.C. Two issues. One issue, which we were already working on, was the crisis response bureau that was shut down at the State Department by the Biden administration. This would have been, again, a unit that would have been very helpful, you would imagine, in a situation like this where you're doing a withdrawal and a drawdown over a period of time.

Why that was completely dismantled. And, of course, the second part of this is getting to the withdrawal itself, the date, the time, the deals that were made. And we just learned now that the reason why it appeared that Kabul fell so quickly to the Taliban was not really because of the Taliban threat so much as the U.S. and the Taliban agreed they were going to fight. So, I mean, this is a lot of new information coming out about how we got to this point. But what's interesting is while the Taliban was making moves regionally, they were able to take Kabul because the U.S. stood down and said, you can take Kabul. And that's now being reported directly that they would be in charge of the security of Kabul, we'd be in charge of the airport, and we'd move it on.

You know, that's where they came up with the August 31st date. But we are taking the action necessary to get to the bottom of this because this is not something the United States wants to repeat, even though it feels like in our history we have before. Yeah, so I'm holding my hand, actually, if you're watching on TV, and we'll put it up on the screen. This is the actual document. It's a 14-page legal document requesting – well, it's a demand, actually, for this information. I suspect we'll get what we normally get from the State Department on this stand, and that's going to be no. And then we go to court and get it. We'll get a non-response, Jay. We'll have to go to court.

We'll have to engage in a lawsuit. And I would just tell you briefly two things we're looking for. We're looking for domestically who inside our government was involved, who is responsible, and what will be done to make that right. The second thing, though, Jay – and I think this is at least as significant. I really want our listeners to hear this. We are laying the groundwork now for the ACLJ and the ECLJ to be at the center of where this issue is going to be very soon. Look, we're in the midst of this crisis, Jay, but we know now that it's going to leave behind what I think is fair to say is a genocidal atmosphere in Afghanistan. We are going to be at the United Nations, at the Human Rights Council.

In fact, Jordan can speak to this. He has already submitted a video presentation to the Human Rights Council laying the groundwork for the work that we're going to have to do in the aftermath. This is messy. It's going to leave behind a catastrophe. But, Jay, this FOIA and our work at the United Nations, we're prepared already. We know it's coming. It's not an optimistic thing, but we're going to be right in the middle of it, and we're not going to leave the people that are behind. All right. So this is from the Washington Post.

I appreciate that, Dan. This was published yesterday. So it's America. It's called the America – The Day America Lost Its Longest War. And it talks about that the President of Afghanistan leaves and law and order begins to break down.

Then there was a hastily arranged meeting in person. This is what they put in the Washington Post. Senior U.S. military leaders in Doha, including General McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, spoke with the head of the Taliban's political wing, Baradar. We have a problem, Baradar said, according to the U.S. official. We have two options to deal with it. You, the United States military, take responsibility for securing Kabul, or you allow us to do it. The you being allowing us and the United States allowing the Taliban to do it.

Throughout the day, Biden had remained resolute in his decision to withdraw all American troops. McKenzie was aware of those orders and told Baradar that the U.S. mission was only to evacuate American citizens and only needed the airport to do it. The lack of having U.S. troops controlling the access points to the airport, I think, proved to be the first and most significant military failure in this. And this Washington Post piece – again, this is the Washington Post – points that out, Colonel Smith.

Yeah, I mean, the mistakes keep being compounded by additional mistakes. But early on, this is after 34 provincial capitals had fallen to the Taliban across the country. By the way, in the agreement we had with the Taliban that started with the Trump administration, it said specifically, you cannot take provincial capitals. If you do, there will be military repercussions.

It's very important for you to say that again. Yeah, if provincial capitals are taken by you, the Taliban, we will take military action. And of course, we had the power to do it.

One by one, those provincial capitals fell, 34 of them. And then they get to the capital city of Kabul and they say, you know, you can either take control, security there, or we will. And we forfeit, we let them do it. And of course, at the time, General McKenzie's thinking, I only have 2,500 troops I'm going to have. They ended up sending in 5,000 more, which would have been enough to secure Kabul. Plus, we still had Afghan National Army troops with us. They were also in Kabul. And yet, they did not tell the Taliban, look, between us and the Afghan Army, we will secure the city until we get out.

No, no, no. They literally, just like they did with Bagram Air Base, they gave the capital city of Kabul to the Taliban for, quote, security. And of course, 13 American service members are dead later on because of that decision. I think this is where the American people want answers. It's exactly how we got to this point, where the Taliban got to this point after 20 years of nonstop conflict and war.

Why were they able to reconstitute so quickly and take these places? And also, to get to this point where if these agreements were made, you know, 13 troops, over 100 people killed on these attacks, why is that occurring? I mean, now, some of this we know is the Taliban is not really an effective governor. They've never been, so they don't really know how to secure perimeters. I don't know why on earth the United States military trusted the Taliban to secure perimeters, even if they were your friend, which they're not.

Right. You would know from history they've never been able to do this. They are factioned off the command and control structure. Has anyone from the U.S. State Department been able to give us a clear command and control structure there? No, it's like throw on a gun, put the white flag up in the air with the Arabic writing, and suddenly you are now in control of your area until someone else tells you you're not. So there's problems there, too, is who are you listening to? And I think that's the question of they can talk, talk, talk how they want these guys in Doha.

That is a lot different than being on the ground. Yeah, listen to the Secretary of State on Meet the Press yesterday. Here's what he said.

Take a listen. They're talking about talking with senior Taliban officials. You may have seen that just yesterday a very senior Taliban official went on television and radio across the country and repeatedly assured people in Afghanistan that they would have the freedom to travel after August 31st. He even specifically said those who worked for the Americans and those who want to leave for whatever reason will have that freedom. Now, of course, we don't take the Taliban at their word. We take them by their deed.

And that's what we're going to be looking to. OK, are we kidding ourselves here? I mean, I want to read what he just said, because this is absurd. You may have seen yesterday that a very senior Taliban official, like now they're telling the truth. I don't even like calling him an official, went on television and radio across the country and repeatedly assured people in Afghanistan they would have the freedom to travel after August 31st. I mean, after we, the United States, gave them a list of who our people are, who our translators are that were on the list to go, you think they're going to let them leave Afghanistan?

Does anybody think for a moment that what's not going to happen on Wednesday is going to be an unbelievable, brutal, terroristic takeover of that country? I mean, this is the secretary of staff, I'm glad we have Mike Pompeo coming up next, taking their word at it. And then, Colonel Smith, what's the leverage? They say we're not going to, we're going to judge him by their deed. That's what we're going to be looking to. And then what are we going to do? If the Taliban is not cooperating and keeping their word now, why would we think that after midnight tomorrow in Afghanistan suddenly they're going to start keeping their word? As Mike Pompeo pointed out in an article on our website, they've already begun the door-to-door seeking out people who cooperated with the U.S. government and summarily executing them. They're targeting Christians especially. Right now that's going on.

Why would Secretary Blinken think that somehow magically after midnight tomorrow that's all going to change? We probably should, if we've not already done it, our U.N. team should probably fan immediately, get to the Human Rights Council and these other entities. We already got it going? Yeah, so we've already done that. I mean, we did that early on because you knew that the U.S. was pulling out. So these international institutions will play a key role because they will be able to get inside, they should be able, they're going to provide humanitarian assistance and economic assistance to the Taliban. The Taliban wants that, so what you want is the U.N. at least going in and saying if you're going to get this you have to do this and allow the nonprofits and NGOs. That's who's going to be playing the role of assisting those who are in need.

But that is still a small group. We are unleashing the Taliban on the Afghan people. Most of those people never will qualify to come here with a special visa.

Just because you're a woman you don't get that. That's not something you get and we know the treatment and what will be different. We also know that those who worked with us, those who do have the passports or the right stamps, the right documents, paperwork, for them to actually get to us is going to take private work.

So we've taken those steps now. I think the next really 24 hours what the world is going to be looking to is not so much the U.S. doing this or not, but of course those final images knowing that you've got a hostile, not just an enemy force ready to take the city, but what's an enemy force that is firing at you. That is unfortunately why there will be so much attention in the next 24 hours is that we know this is almost like a war zone.

It is. Actually it is a war zone. They've been killing Americans, the Taliban has for 20 years, that really if you look at the people they're killing now, our allies who are in Kabul itself, they have not stopped that behavior and it will only get more so after midnight tomorrow.

When we come back, we'll play too. I mean Jake Sullivan, who is the National Security Advisor to the President, said that billions of dollars was not soft power. This guy, who's at least an academic, that is soft power. You're talking about non-military actions.

It doesn't matter how much money you're talking about to buy someone off. That's soft. That's not hard.

Hard means war. So they're redefining a lot of what they mean to be engaged in the world. These are the people that the Europeans all applauded. Remember that at the end of the day.

They applauded. Now they are begging and wishing for a different government. But that's not going to happen. We're dealing with our current government and the current situations as we do at the ACLJ, dealing with reality.

We'll be right back. Secretary, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is joining us. This is called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to Secular. We are joined by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. I want to play this sound. This is Chris Wallace talking to the current National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Fox News Sunday, yesterday.

Take a listen, Byte 6. This fellow Haqqani, he authorized suicide bombings against U.S. forces in Afghanistan over the years. The State Department has a $5 billion bounty on this guy's head. Do you really believe that the kinds of soft power pressure you're talking about is enormous leverage over a zealot like Haqqani? First of all, Chris, billions of dollars is not soft power. That's real cold, hard cash that matters.

Okay. Now, Mike, is that couple of billion dollars of soft power going to be real leverage on a guy that has made his career out of killing Americans? Well, I can't imagine that the leverage situation hasn't already changed and won't deteriorate even further as we make our final departure in the next 36 hours or so from Afghanistan.

The leverage that we were successful for four years in using had very little to do with money. We never paid the Taliban. Our leverage had to do with the fact that American power would rain down on their heads if they didn't do the things that we needed to do. It's how we managed from February 2020 on not to have a single American attacked or an American killed. When you lose that leverage, when you lose the power of America, the hard leverage, the real leverage that you have over someone who is a butcher and a horrible, horrible, horrible person like Siraj Haqqani, you lose the real leverage that you have. Secretary Pompeo, you've got a new piece up at ACLJ.org that went up on Friday, but I want to draw people's attention to it because the headline of the piece is the Biden administration has created a humanitarian crisis and potential genocide in Afghanistan. I want people to read the piece at ACLJ.org and share it with their friends and family. But that aspect, I think people see the humanitarian side, they realize this is not going to be good for most people, most Afghans who don't have permits to even travel.

They don't have a place to kind of even look towards to private companies and these evacuations that may still go on privately or through contractors. But the genocide statement there, the fact that in the last 20 years people have had more freedoms in Afghanistan to decide their faith, not perfect, but they've had these opportunities. And you're very concerned that we are putting these people in a very dangerous situation. Well, it's almost certainly the case that it's deteriorated materially in the last couple of weeks already in those areas that had previously been under the control of the Afghan government. Life was more normal than it had been in an awfully long time in Afghanistan.

There were women going to school, there were kids being educated, it wasn't America, but it was better. The places that were governed by the Taliban was significantly worse, massive human rights violations that now is the state of affairs for nearly all of Afghanistan. So the lives of these people will be severely diminished and their freedoms almost vanish. You know, one of the things, Mr. Secretary, that came out of all of this was the negotiations with the Taliban as it relates to the military side of this. And apparently, according to the Washington Post, there were negotiations going on between General McKinsey and the head of the Taliban political wing, Beridar. What's interesting about this is the Taliban apparently said that the U.S. could control Kabul, that would have been appropriate, they could have done that, or the Taliban has to do it, it's one or the other. And the United States decided to let the Taliban control it, and I think that probably is a pretty fatal mistake.

Your sense? If that reporting is true, I've read it, the article as well, if that reporting is true, there had to be enormous political pressure coming from the most senior elements of the White House, directing the military to stand back to saying that we're not going to devote the resources necessary to go protect Kabul. I can't imagine a military leader making a decision that says, nope, you can have the city, we'll just take this little old airport as our security outpost. I would have thought the military leader would have wanted the more expansive security perimeter that having control of Kabul would have provided. But my guess is, and I don't know this, my guess is if the reporting is true, the White House had clearly made the message known to the military leaders, shrink as fast as you can, get a tiny footprint. August 31st is a real hard stop no matter what these guys do.

Even if we have Americans left behind, we're going to leave on the 31st. And the military leadership was trying to make decisions inside of that massively politically constrained environment. How dangerous, Secretary Pompeo, we saw what can happen to our troops if just one of these bombs is able to get through.

I don't know if they're still as exposed right now because they have sent out these messages that they're basically only dealing with the people that are left. But it would seem to me that this 36 hours, taking out all the politics, whether we should go or not before our troops, very dangerous on the ground. Yes, during this perilous time, these kinds of transitions even perfectly executed are always difficult to manage. I pray that our military has been provided the resources they need to execute this in a way that reduces risk.

There's no doubt as you're trying to get that last piece of equipment, those last people that you have decided are going to be on the inside out, it is a very difficult problem set. Contrary to what we've heard some of this administration's senior leaders say, these folks don't have an incentive to make this easy. In fact, they have an incentive to make us pay a price as we're exiting so that we'll never consider returning again. Mike, I wrote a book years ago when ISIS was barely known called Rise of ISIS, which was based on a research project I did at the University of Oxford in 2015. And it was when barely anybody knew of ISIS. And then you've got the ISIS-K because it's handling that province involving Pakistan and of course Afghanistan. And then the administration keeps pitching this while the Taliban is the mortal enemy of ISIS. History has shown, however, that even mortal enemies within a religious group, say the Sunni and Shia and the Iranians, who then will back both if there is a common enemy that they think is larger and more significant for their overall exporting of their terrorism. What do you think the risk is with the Taliban and ISIS, especially the Taliban giving a safe haven to ISIS? Are we going to be looking at ISIS 2015 again? They definitely have varying approaches, but your core point is spot on. These folks have gladly worked together against the great Satan. There is more of a bond with the common enemy than there is an adversarial behavior between them.

That risk certainly continues. Look, you have the Sunni al-Qaeda leadership sitting inside of Shia Iran today. In Tehran, the al-Qaeda senior leadership is sitting right in the capital of Iran. They will find accommodations on top way to work together against the United States and against the West. And so, yes, the risk of ISIS return and ISIS rise is very real. And I hope that there have been the resources appropriately placed in Afghanistan to prevent that. But I have not seen any evidence of that today.

Can I ask one last really quick? We got less than a minute left here. What is this doing for our image globally? I mean, you know, the Biden administration are the global leaders again. It sure doesn't look that way. It doesn't feel that way to me and it certainly doesn't appear that way to the folks who reached out to me and called me. And are very concerned about American credibility and the fact that, you know, we've committed treachery from their perspective with our friends. And that's never a good place to find yourself.

Certainly a horrible place for the United States to find itself. I appreciate it. Secretary Pompeo, of course, is our senior counsel for global affairs at the ACLJ. Great to have you as part of this team. So helpful and your knowledge that you're imparting to our audience. We can't thank you enough. Thanks, Mike. The piece is up at ACLJ.org from Secretary Pompeo.

The Biden administration has created a humanitarian crisis and potential genocide in Afghanistan. So I want you to share that with your friends and family because that's looking post also the withdrawal, which again, the attention is going to be on that. Look at all the resources that we have available for people. And this is, you know, we're in the last two days of our matching challenge campaign. But I was just thinking about that, Jordan, the resources that we've been able to bring to these.

Who knew that we'd be dealing with this when we hired Mike just three months ago? And we're able to do that because of your support for the ACLJ. We've got a matching challenge right now at ACLJ.org. Double the impact your donation.

We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Here's what we have in the world right now. And, of course, praying for people who are in the storm's path for that part of the country. And, obviously, we're just kind of starting to see what the storm did as people are turning back on.

We know some people without power in places that are very hot, very humid, and not easy to deal with that were already reeling from packed hospitals. So I think that there's going to be, let's say, a humanitarian issue right in our own back here. There already is because of this storm that has hit the Gulf. But, second, we also know that the withdrawal in Afghanistan is coming. And this is coming within 36 hours.

But it's tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon. So not long after this broadcast is over tomorrow, we're supposed to be out of Afghanistan, the entire U.S. government, the military. And we know that there will be people left behind. We know people are already preparing for how to get people out after the U.S. government leaves. But there's major questions like who's running that airport? Is the Taliban going to become air traffic controllers? That is not something they were able to do effectively whenever they've been able to seize power, is they've never really been able to run the bureaucracy of government, the things you need to keep a country moving.

Which is what made them always vulnerable to their own people turning on them, was that even as harsh as they were, they couldn't get the machines of government to operate. We had, and of course at the same time, we had 13 of our fallen received at Dover. And I want to go to Colonel Smith because you were in charge of that dignified return.

You saw that, we all saw it yesterday play out, tragic. That mother crying at the coffin of her 19-year-old son was heart renting. Yeah, it brought back for me because I spent over three years doing that mission at Dover Air Force Base.

It brought back to me a lot of memories and what I call a lot of emotional memories. And the thing that a lot of people don't realize what's behind the scenes there, these families when a casualty notification officer knocks on their door and informs them that a loved one has been killed, they have to make a decision on the spot whether or not they will go at government expense to Dover Air Force Base to receive the body of their loved one. There's no time to think about it. They need to know right then because they have to decide we're going or we're not. If they decide to go, about three-fourths of the families decide to go. Yesterday we had 13 casualties. Not every family member came. We had over 40 family members that showed up yesterday.

I talked with people that are on staff there as late as this morning. But yeah, it's a tough situation for the families. It's very emotional.

They are still in states of shock and grief when they stand on that tarmac and watch those flag-draped transfer cases come off that plan. I mean, you've been a pastor for a long time and as a chaplain in that kind of situation, what are you communicating with the loved ones? Communicating with them that it is okay to be in shock and grief. And I was often asked, will I ever get over this? And my response consistently was, no, you will get past this someday.

You will not ever get over it. This is emotional not only for the families. I tell you what, it's emotional for the dignitaries who come there from Washington, D.C.

It's especially emotional for the staff. I thought about this yesterday because we haven't had very many casualties in the last year and a half. Some of those young airmen and Marines that are stationed there, they've not dealt with mass casualties in all these families like this.

And so it's all new for them. And I will say one other quick thing. And this was not a surprise to me because, like I said, I spent a long time being there when President Obama was President. But I do know for a fact that yesterday when President Biden came, there was so much anguish and so much anger that a fourth of the family members there refused to meet with the President.

They graciously said, no, we will not speak to this man. That's very sad, but it's very, very telling as well. Yeah, I mean, listen, when you look at some of the ages of those people, they were not born or being born during 9-11.

I mean, it was not real as the same kind of way it feels was not the same way. And, of course, our conflict zones, while our U.S. troops are always putting themselves in danger, even their training is dangerous enough. But we haven't seen those kind of reports. It's not the daily U.S. casualty list that maybe people got used to a decade ago. It's been a long time since we've seen that kind of casualties and in a single attack on U.S. troops. And, again, it is a reminder, unfortunate, of where we can be when we let these radical groups, Islamic groups, terrorize. You know, people make a lot of hay about what's going on in our own country and these domestic groups here. So far, none of them have done what that one group has done continually, which is actually go in and kill Americans, targeted to kill Americans.

And that's the real threat. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases. How we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists. The ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later. A play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry. And what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

Welcome back to Secular. Take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. Frank is calling in from Florida. If you want to be part of the show, it's 1-800-684-3110. You can also put questions in on Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, social media too. We can get to those as well.

Hey Frank, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Thank you for taking my call. I've got two questions.

I'll try to make them brief. One, have any ops to take back from Air Force Base? And two, could Lucia Hadine?

So I think I got what you're saying. One, I don't think there's no ops to take back. This is done.

To take Bagram? No. There's no reversal at this point. It would take an invasion of American forces in the 10,000. We'd see it. It would not be something they would be able to hide.

You'd see these forces coming in. We've given the base. We've given the ammunition.

That's gone. And Mujahideen is the Taliban. So they became their break-offs. Not everybody that fought in that did not become a member of the Taliban. There are other tribal factions that are not Islamic hardliners. But for the most part, that is where they became. But you're going back, remember, the same thing with our troops who got killed on Friday.

Most of these Taliban fighters, same thing. They are not coming at this with the history of living necessarily through 9-11. They may have been born around then.

But that's true. They're young. The guys on the street are the same age. They're in their 20s. So they are not... So some of us are looking at this from a perspective that I don't think is how people on the ground are necessarily saying this.

Now, the planners are. So everybody who's playing this at the top level, of course, has lived through this, has probably lived through similar conflicts. And I think the most simple it looks like is Vietnam on what it's feeling and looking like. But what we know with radical Islam, and they're different from the communists that we're fighting, is the spread of this into our country. They try to find a safe haven where they can then operate and plan attacks in the United States.

And that's what this ISIS group is about. Right now, they've got Americans there to target. So Colonel Smith brought up a very interesting statistic that came out from the State Department over the weekend regarding Americans being left behind. There will be Americans left behind.

They always caveat with saying, any American that wants to leave, these are people that want to leave. Yes. So what's the status exactly?

Yeah. Last Thursday, when the President made his speech following the bombing, the two most shocking things he said was, August 31st is the firm date. And he admitted that day that there probably will be Americans and our allies left behind. Yesterday, the State Department released their figures. Their estimate is there are about 150 US citizens who have chosen to stay. They think there are probably 250 more US citizens who are simply stranded there in Afghanistan for the time being. I think the State Department, probably they're low balling that figure, but they owned up to the fact, which surprised me, that there are 250 Americans who would like to get out.

They cannot get to the airport and they cannot get them out. And of course, they're depending on leverage and the good graces of the Taliban who've been killing Americans for 20 years to help us get those citizens out. Yeah.

So you're talking a serious situation, which I'm going to play Jake Tapper's interview with Representative Moulton in a minute. But I think it's worth reiterating to our audience that members of Congress have been working with individuals from their districts in Afghanistan, trying to help get them out, including Christian missionaries. Yeah.

Yeah. When Wes talks about low balling the number of 250, this is just anecdotally, Jay, but I've been talking to members on the Hill and offices, Republican, Democrat alike, say that they are inundated with people either firsthand or secondhand contacts of Americans who are in Afghanistan. So I think that number is extremely low. And I've heard from a number of them this morning, Jay, who said, we're essentially preparing for what happens on September 1st. We know we're going to have to shift to our efforts to be unconventional. They're not going to be evacuations on U.S. aircraft.

They're probably going to be overground on other borders. But Jay, there's no other way to put it. This evacuation is leaving Americans stranded in Afghanistan. So take a listen to this.

I want to get Jordan and Ben's reaction. Is the process going as smoothly as the White House describes it? No, no, Jake. I mean, look, there's one of the things we learned on the ground there is that one of the biggest burdens on the troops are all these haphazard requests coming in from members of Congress and members of the administration in no sort of organized way. So the troops, again, on the ground are doing this incredibly heroic effort, not only out there in the in front of the gate to find these Afghans, but behind the wire in the airport to simply identify which ones we need to get to sift through thousands and thousands of requests and figure out which ones we need to bring over the wire. So the system is not working very well. But I think we're at the point now the system is done.

You know, I mean, let's we we are living reality now. This system haphazardly worked. You know, it ended with basically the death of 13 Americans being killed active duty troops. And I think that was it. I honestly think that they were already having to wrap up.

That's how many days they said it would take for the military's three to four days to finish up their rap. I think once that happened, this administration politically has decided we're going to maintain this tone. You're not going to be thinking about this in a year. We got COVID. We got hurricanes.

Right. We've got a lot of domestic issues, trying to get people back to school, quarantining still again, all those issues. So this will not be where you focus. Yes, people will care that America has got killed, but they will not be focusing on this months from now. You know, there's reports coming out right now. It's on Fox News and some others that the Taliban has kill squads, which we know they do have to try to hunt down U.S. allies. These are individuals that assisted the United States during this conflict. Yeah. And we actually gave them a list.

We gave them a list of their names and their locations, their addresses. And so it is no surprise that the Taliban is killing them. I suppose, according to Jack Sullivan and Anthony Blinken, that after midnight tomorrow, suddenly they're going to change and they're going to start bringing these people so we can get them out of the country. That is, that is farcical.

That is naive. That is crazy. You know, you know, then again, goes back to fan in Jordan. What do you get?

What do you get? Because they're banking right now. I mean, politically, I hate even saying this folks, but this is what they're banking on politically. You've got a hurricane. You've got a big increase in the number of COVID cases. The number of deaths from COVID each day are increasing to proportions that are reminiscent of the dark winter we just came through.

And I will say again, be careful. This COVID situation is real. It took the life of my brother. It is not, I mean, somebody posted on one of the social media platforms yesterday that this is a giant, I think it was a radio talk show host in Florida, passed away. Another one conservative was anti-vaccine died that goes, that's three so far, at least that we know of. And then someone posting a well-known commentator about how this whole thing is affecting less than 0.5% of the world population. Well, you know what? That's a big number.

And that one of those people in that 0.5 was my brother. So this is not pretend, no, you know, this is real and people are allowing, and this is what I'm concerned about, that the government is going to shift the focus, and I understand why they're going to do it back to the vaccine, back to the pandemic, because that's their segue out of this. I'm telling you they're both horrific and awful, and you're giving them ammunition if you're doing nothing to protect you or your family. And frankly, you're putting everybody at risk, including my grandkids.

So think about what you're doing when you're marching out there and how important it is and you're into some, you know, non-science mode, okay? Be careful. It has real ramifications. I needed to get that off my chest.

It's been bugging me for a week, Jordan. Yeah. And I think the storm for where that hit, I mean, these are places in the country that have no hospital space left. Samaritan's person groups like that are literally building 10 hospitals in America. So there is a serious crisis. It depends on where you live and if you see it, but, you know, being reported, it's real.

I mean, when they say that the hospitals are full... Where our studio is based, they say every ER bed basically in town is taken with unvaccinated coping people. Yeah. And so, again, it's real.

These are all real things. I think that... But that's where the... Politically, this administration, and this is for most Democratic administrations, and listen, I'm not saying they're wrong politically on how they see the country, but they refocus the country on domestic issues, big budget items, big handout items. If they get people's thoughts there and out of Afghanistan and out of foreign policy and back to the domestic issues, that's where they think they went. Yeah.

I mean, it's a sleight of hand, Jordan. It's a distraction from the catastrophe that's unfolding in Afghanistan. And look, I think people should really focus in on it.

I do think the distraction from the storm, the distraction with COVID may cause people to shift their attention. We can't allow that to happen. And Jordan, I would just tell you, I mean, that soundbite you played a minute ago from Seth Moulton. That is a Democrat from my home state of Maryland pointing out just how much of a travesty this is. And I want you to think about this. He said in there that members of Congress engaging on the ground might be a distraction.

It might be haphazard. I accept that, Jordan. But imagine this, you're a member of Congress who has a constituent who's being stranded in Afghanistan, and the people responsible for getting that constituent out have failed. Are you going to say, okay, they failed, and walk away? Or are you going to step up and do everything in your power to try to get that constituent out? I think that's the correct thing to do. Maybe it's not the right channel, Jordan, but guess what? The correct channel, the proper channel, failed. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, listen, people wouldn't be having to utilize those means. At that point, you're in a crisis. At that point, you're in a crisis. So you can agree with the congressman that, yes, it makes things more complicated, more difficult, but you don't get to that point unless you allow a crisis to continue. We know it's been a chaotic situation on the ground. What we are now, I think we have to hope and pray for is, one, that no more U.S. troops are injured or killed, because right now, we know that if these groups like ISIS-K have carried out these attacks, that they're looking at these next 36 hours. This is the last time they're going to potentially have U.S. troops right in their own backyard, potentially the last time.

It doesn't feel like we're necessarily going to never be back in Afghanistan. But again, let's follow that very closely. Stay with us, of course, online at aclj.org, through our social media platforms.

And we encourage you to be part of our matching challenge, double the impact of your donation to the ACLJ at aclj.org. We'll be right back on Secular. Anyone in society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected.

Is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched.

A $10 gift becomes $20, a $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to the final segment of the broadcast today. Now listen, we know, so at this time tomorrow we're talking to you, there's only going to be a few hours left while we're live on the air, for the United States in the deal with the Taliban.

And what it appears to be is that they are going to be going down to the final hour, but we're out. I mean, I think that the discussion of what could we do, what could potentially, all that's done for right now, anything else would have to be a whole new invasion of Afghanistan by the United States or something similar. I don't even know what happens tomorrow with embassy. So our embassy is gone in Kabul. That was taken by the Taliban, it moved to the airport, so we have no diplomatic at all representation. It doesn't appear that we are, because how would those Americans be safe without US troops protecting them? So if they're gone, then the diplomatic side is gone.

So what are we left with? And I think that then you look at the situation, you realize we're going to be left with a humanitarian, as Secretary Pompeo writes for us at ACLJ.org, this humanitarian crisis. And the world is going to have to step up. This is, again, not good for the United States.

We're talking about having the UN come in there and having the, oh, hopefully they can do the work because we know that's corrupt. It's not as efficient. It doesn't help the people. And it's much more difficult to get things done. You think that we have bureaucracy in America, that's nothing compared to what they're dealing with. But that may be the best place to turn right now because there will not be official representation on the ground.

Very difficult situation. And I think what we have to worry about right now, I mean, what all Americans should be concerned about is our U.S. troops that are there. We know that they are being targeted.

The rocket attacks that have happened, thankfully, did not, but those bombing attacks, if you are, if this group is what they have been described as being ISIS-K, this would be where you threw all of your assets possible in the next 24 to 36 hours. So the question that I have is as we evacuate, basically, here, one thing I hope doesn't happen, the press should be respectful of this, is we don't give the detailed plans of how we're doing this. But we probably have troops evacuating now. I think we are.

I'm sure we do. And we need to realize they will be targeting U.S. troops until that last plane is wheels up. They will continue to try and kill them. Yesterday, the rocket attacks on the base of the airport sort of took a lot of the attention. But we used an airstrike to target a car bomb with two bombers that were heading to the airport. And just before they arrived at the airport vicinity, we blew that car up.

There were secondary explosions because of the amount of explosives in that car. We are targets. They are still continuing to launch these attacks.

And here's the thing. Biden's credibility and America's credibility is harmed not only by his actions, but by his refusal to acknowledge the mistakes. And somehow they're trying to spin defeat as being a victory. You know, when is the last time, Jay, that we left 250 plus Americans in a terrorist group behind enemy lines? As weak as Jimmy Carter was during the Iranian hostage crisis, at least he tried to get them out. Yeah, but this is the Jimmy Carter moment, unfortunately, for Joe Biden.

But it's unfortunately, it's the Jimmy Carter moment for our whole country. And then the question goes to, and it was an interesting tippy on YouTube said, what leverage, talking to Secretary Blinken, do you have when you just gave billions of dollars worth of military equipment? And it's, is there going to be any really meaningful oversight or all the other world events that we talked about, the pandemic, the hurricane, I know how the news cycles move here. Once the troops are out, I think the reporting on Afghanistan is going to probably change unless the country just explodes, which I hope it doesn't, but that's very possible.

I think that's probably correct, Jay. I mean, that's why we're engaging in this effort right now, because by the time it gets to public hearings in Congress, I'm telling you, it's mostly going to be partisan circling of the wagons. But look, one of the questions that has to be asked, and there has to be accountability on this, Jay, is why were the Taliban allowed to call the shots here?

I mean, you guys walked through the provincial capitals that were surrendered and there was no recourse taken. Well, right now, I mean, actively, Jay, there are three asks on the table from the Taliban. They want international recognition.

They want foreign aid from the United States, which by the way, it looks like we're going to give them and they want no sanctions. So while, while I think the political atmospherics will come back and there'll probably be partisan leanings. I mean, the questions about whether or not to give the Taliban foreign aid, Jay, those are still critical and members of Congress better stand up and do the right thing on that.

I don't have a lot of confidence they will though. You know, this is the bottom line. What we know is that this situation, very dangerous, it is a very situation, dangerous real time situation on the ground for our troops long term.

Listen, I don't know how much the world, I think you're right. How much is the world and especially US and Western media going to focus in on Afghanistan once we're gone? I don't even know how many of those outlets will be there. I think there will be some definitely residual because there's an interest in, okay, what does, what happens to this airport tomorrow? What does the Taliban do as a governing body trying to actually control the streets? They are doing a very good job of it.

I mean, they've allowed it to get, if it, if truly that was their role and they are trying to prevent this group like ISIS-K from gaining more power, they weren't able to. And and again, so yes, chaotic scenes, but also again, this US departure I think will be it's going to be quite an image tomorrow, whenever that last flight takes off and on the ground, I think it's more chaotic than ever before. So again, I just think that that's where the focus should be right now, the American people on our troops, their safety, because the policy wise, we're going to have a long time to talk about that and get to the bottom of issues. They're gone tomorrow. But listen to what Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, said in March about how we were going to handle this withdrawal.

Take a listen to this. Whatever we end up doing, again, is going to be informed by the thinking of our allies and tactical decisions aside, we're united with those allies in in a few things and in making sure that we as we move forward, we seek to bring a responsible end to the conflict to remove our troops from from harm's way. And to ensure that Afghanistan can never again become a haven for terrorists that would threaten the United States or any of our allies.

We failed on all three of the points he made. I mean, this is what's so shocking. I mean, the first thing he says is this the orderly transfer responsible into the conflict, we lost 13 Marines horribly. Then it's to remove the troops from harm's way.

Well, we're doing that. But to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for terrorists. It is terrorists. It's controlled by terrorists. We gave it to the terrorists. We gave it to the Taliban and they released ISIS.

Yeah, absolutely. And right now, Al Qaeda, they've already released statements celebrating the Americans leaving and they are counting on and they will get an umbrella of protection by the Taliban government there. So you've got Al Qaeda, you've got ISIS, you've got the Taliban, all terrorist groups. It is a complete route of the of America is a complete victory for for these groups. And to try and pretend otherwise, I just don't think the average thinking person is going to buy that you cannot take something that is a surrender and act like it's a military victory and that somehow a defeat is not embarrassing and humiliating and has long term bad repercussions for people around the world. Listen, we none of us can predict these 36 hours exactly.

We know the seeds. People are just trying to process what happened last week and the amount of loss of of U.S. lives. But this will the threat for that is very real. It's probably increasing since Friday.

And so these defensive measures that are put in place at some point, you got to pull those two. Yep, you're absolutely right. Let me say this. We're going to play as soon as we're done with the broadcast and just on our social media platforms, a song that our band wrote called Where I Stand that we performed with Ricky Skaggs.

And I want to play it because it really talks about this kind of evil. But it gives you a chance also to listen to music, but pray for those fallen. Pray for the remainder of our to put the politics aside for a moment.

Let's pray for our troops' safety and for those that helped the United States during this 20-year war that somehow we'll be able to protect them in some way. But I encourage you to listen to this song as we close out this broadcast and also support the work. Last day, last two days of our matching challenge campaign at ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.